by Dan Franklin
“What if the future of God, which means the evolution of our own species, literally depended on us as individuals in real time? If it really did, would we continue to live our lives in the way that we’re living them?”
—Andrew Cohen
The following is a review by MCLA Associate Director Dan Franklin, of an extraordinary cd set by Andrew Cohen called Awakening the Authentic Self, The Path and Practice of Evolutionary Enlightenment (Published by EnlightenmentNext)
I became aware of this wisdom teacher through my exposure to the pundit and world-renowned philosopher Ken Wilber, founder of the Integral Institute. Wilber is well worth learning more about in his own right. Both Wilber and Cohen, who has his own organization, are among a growing group of individuals and organizations that are exploring the farthest reaches of human consciousness in relationship to the evolution of our species and the profound affects the urge toward self-realization can have on our world culture and it’s institutions.
Andrew Cohen’s work is provocative and important… This beautifully packaged and well organized cd set recorded live during a retreat in Tuscany, Italy, is an expression of what he believes to be the next evolutionary step in consciousness and in human evolution. It’s subject is nothing less than awareness becoming aware of itself and then operating through “our” moral development. Transcend, re-enter and expand is the message. Manifest God through our actions in the world is his moral imperative. It is how God enters time and space. Through us, it is done. “I AM” with a responsibility chaser. Moral development along with creative zeal is God’s Will operating through us, creating through us. Waking up is a moral imperative because it is the means by which we complete the work of our souls, the incarnated souls. It all makes sense as cosmic plan with exquisite freedom to choose to follow it or not follow it. We can choose to liberate ourselves from the tyranny of our egoic structures, our personal stories, and madnesses, and facilitate the “process” through what Cohen refers to as the five tenets of what he calls evolutionary enlightenment.
The five tenets are:
#1: Clarity of Intention The Conscious, clear intention to evolve,
Beyond the ego, with moral development for the good of all.
#2: The law of Volitionality where the individual chooses without
conditions, responsibility for every traumatic event that happens to the self, no matter how far back in time and space.
#3: Face everything/ Avoid Nothing. The practice of Awareness as
the path and the goal. There is an effort to pay attention to
what’s happening as it is happening, always in the present
moment, never the past or the future.
#4: The Law of Impersonality. Every single aspect of your personal
experience can be seen from an impersonal perspective.
#5: For the Sake of the Whole. This is covered by the first four
Tenets. It is the evolution of the “we” for the sake of
Consciousness itself.
Cohen’s approach is stunningly radical only in its insistence that to become a self-realized, enlightened being, without the urge, the moral compass to aid the process of collective, cosmic expansion…..then even enlightenment ( no small task in itself ) falls prey to another aspect of narcissistic self-importance, no matter how spectacular the accomplishment. It is ultimately forever and always about something larger than our egoic selves, our particular stories, our anxiety-ridden and driven existential narratives or even our individual “liberation” from fixations of our egoic structures.
He expresses this conscious choosing for the sake of the whole as the most dignified and ethical way to overcome personal and cultural narcissism for a higher purpose. In other words, the motivation stimulates the desire to wake up, not just for our own bliss but for the evolution of the whole process – the creative intelligence of the universe expressing itself through man/womankind. What could be better than an even better reason to wake up? And what could be a better way to stimulate the process?
He tells us not simply to pay attention to who and what we are in our divine essence, but why we need to pay attention. What is the goal? What does our awakening serve beyond the experience of being awake? He says one can wake up and still not play an important role in the development of the species, which he sees in some ways as a wasted life. Each human being offers an opportunity for God to expand. It is an expanding intelligence, a living universe, not a static one, but it can only expand if we, with the special gifts of awareness of human beings with the potential for divine grace, wake up to the task. He sees this as our human destiny and what makes our lives relevant in whatever way we manage to wake up – is to then apply our unique talents in the world, in alignment with the awakening that must first or simultaneously begin to occur.
For Cohen, this is about winning liberation from the tyranny of the ego and more. It’s about paying attention to everything we experience as part of a process rather than simply the expression of a personal experience of transcendence.
Some of the highlights of his message:
What’s the point of defending what’s already happened?
All the highs and lows in life can be processed without the habit of personalization.
The spiritual impulse is an “ecstatic compulsion” to evolve.
Cohen is essentially proposing that a meaningful, purposeful life is self-realization plus moral development for the furtherance of the evolution of the process of God becoming even more of Itself. In Cohen’s view, it can only happen through us. We are the vehicle that drives the evolutionary process and it is our free will ( through intention and volition) to do so that determines the outcome of who and what we become as a species and how God expresses Itself in the world of form – at the very least, human form.
He’s saying, even were we to reach the lofty goal of a relatively, or even more rare, an absolutely enlightened being, to simply groove on the experience of Universal Oneness without taking on the responsibility to manifest a more evolved, more morally developed species, is incomplete and somewhat beside the point.
I find this a courageous stand, a responsible and responsive spiritual impetus, and furthers the values-driven best aspects of our religious and spiritual traditions with a new dimension of emphasis, beyond the values-free approach of many spiritual traditions that assume as we transcend form, we will naturally re-enter the world as more deeply loving and engaged souls. Cohen doesn’t want to leave this to chance, but to choice.
Cohen takes the strong position which seems to be suggestive of his own journey of awakening that if intention to liberate the whole is consciously built into the urge toward enlightenment, it will happen. More than ironically, and consistent with his moral position is the work he and others are doing to raise the bar on the enlightenment game is practicing the very principles he preaches.
Ultimately Cohen is asking a provocative and profound question about self-realization or enlightenment. Can it become as much a question of choice as grace? Rather than an escape from the world, personal, individual enlightenment can be a new starting point for an active participation in the transformation of the planet. It becomes a “sacred obligation.”
I urge you to check out this wisdom teacher and his materials. You’ll be glad you did. And so will the world.
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